Flame ‘Special One’ Nangolo won the WBA Pan Africa super featherweight title in style with a first round knockout of Zimbabwe’s Peter Pambeni on Saturday night.
The fight had hardly moved into gear, with most of the spectators still settling into their seats, when Nangolo caught Pambeni with a terrific body punch that buckled his knees and dropped him to the canvas.
Pambeni could not recover and remained down as the referee counted him out, one minute and five seconds into the round, to seal a stunning victory for Nangolo.
With his ecstatic fans celebrating joyously around him, Nangolo was still quite surprised by his sudden victory after the fight.
“I want to thank the almighty God – I’m a believer. I worked so hard, my team put in a lot of work, and we have come a long way to reach this point tonight. I did not expect him to go down so early, but it just shows the power of the punch that I hit him with,” he said.
“To my fans you can expect more to come. We are here for a reason and we are just getting better every single day,” he added.
It was an impressive win against an experienced campaigner, which stretched his unbeaten record to 12 fights, while he has now added the WBA Pan Africa super featherweight title to his collection after previousy having won the Africa Boxing Union super featherweight.
At the age of 23 Nangolo’s future looks bright, but for the 38-year-old Pambeni, who’s record now reads 18 wins, 9 losses and 3 draws, it is surely the end of the road.
In the main supporting bout, Hafeni Ngesheya beat Joseph Abel on a unanimous points decision over 10 rounds to win the national junior lightweight title, with the judges scoring it 97-92, 97-92, 96-93 in his favour.
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Ngesheya used his longer reach to good effect as he raked in the points with a sharp jab, but Abel gave as good as he got, landing some good combinations at close quarters in an evenly-matched contest.
Charles Shinima, meanwhile, got back to winning ways after suffering his first defeat against Dennis Nurja of Albania in March, with a third round knockout win against Stefanus Kakololo.
Shinima was in control from the start and the outcome was never in doubt against the back-pedalling Kakololo. Shinima finally found the target in the third round, connecting with a left hook, that sent Kakololo crashing to the canvas and out for the count.
Shinima’s record now stands at 18 wins and one loss, while Kakololo has lost all four of his pro fights.
Ruaan Rispel and Denzil Silvanus battled it out to an entertaining draw in a lightweight fight over four rounds. Both boxers showed great stamina as they slugged it out toe-to-toe, much to the delight of the fans, as the judges called it a majority draw.
Rispel’s record now stands at seven wins and one draw, while Silvanus’ record stands at one win and one draw.
In a junior welterweight fight, Simon Angula beat Johannes Andreas on a unanimous points decision (40-36, 39-37, 39-37), while in another junior welterweight fight, Robert Ndalelwa beat Nicanor Halweendo on a third round knockout.
